T5 HO photo period?

[Bluephish13]

This is a simple one, what is your t5 HO with slr photoperiod?. how many bulbs do you run?, on what size tank?
10hrs daylight 12hr actinic seemed to be the norm for the older t5 setups with the big single reflector. So how long do you run your new setups with the nice ice cap, tek, & aquactinic slr's, and high par bulbs. is it cooled? Also makes a big diff.

[smogl00]

I run a 4 X 24 t5HO setup over my twenty gallon high mixed reef. I keep my photoperiod a bit shorter, with actinics on for ten hours and full daylight on for nine hours. I also have the LEDS on 24 hours. I've gotten a decent amount of growth so far, and my zoos

[smogl00]

I run a 4 X 24 t5HO setup over my twenty gallon high mixed reef. I keep my photoperiod a bit shorter, with actinics on for ten hours and full daylight on for nine hours. I also have the LEDS on 24 hours. I've gotten a decent amount of growth so far, and my zoos and sps are really taking off! I've been meaning to get some pics on here soon, my tank has gone from being a complete cyano mess to beautiful after joining on here! Anyhow, hope that helps

-Steve

[DEEPBLUESIX]

I run 8 T5 HO over a 75 Gallon mixed reef. (54 watt each)
Also moon light style leds.
I run:

2 actinic blue 03 for 14 hours,
1 red wave & 1 phosphor violet for 10 hours,
2 50/50's (half violet & half white) 18000 K for 8 hours
2 bright daylight 10000 K (the brightest white) for 6 hours.

Led Moonlights sometimes 24 hrs, sometimes off at night.
Depending if I want them on or not.

My Zoas, Acans, birdsnest, Green Slimer Stag, & Clams all Love it!

I've even seen some expanding growth since the change over (in lights) from my Green Nephia tree & Goniporia. They are getting huge! My Goni is over a year now, has grown & fingers crossed, is still doing excellent!

(I used to run sets of power compacts with 2 Metal Halide HQI's)

Atleast on this particular set up, I like the T5HO's better.

[cardiffgiant]

I run a 6x54 48" fixture. I run everything for 8 hours.

I used to run about 12 hours. There was a thread of the month where folks were noticing an increase in growth by shortening the photoperiods. I notice similar results when I shortened mine. However, I haven't been thrilled with the growth and color for the past month, and I'm going to gradually boost it back up to 10.

An additional note on the T5's... I know that some folks have experienced significant drop off as the bulbs age, and a have noticed that corals need to re acclimate after changing all bulbs at once. I've got my maintenance schedule set up to replace 2 bulbs every 4 months to try to maintain a consistent lighting intensity.

Mine are set up as:

[back]
Geisman Aquablue+
ATI blue+
Geisman Aquablue+
Geisman Actinic+
KZ Fiji purple
Geisman Actinic+
[front]

[RandyO]

Originally posted by cardiffgiant


However, I haven't been thrilled with the growth and color for the past month, and I'm going to gradually boost it back up to 10.


Mine are set up as:

[back]
Geisman Aquablue+
ATI blue+
Geisman Aquablue+
Geisman Actinic+
KZ Fiji purple
Geisman Actinic+
[front]

You might want to throw in a whiter bulb in that mix to get better growth and color.

[cardiffgiant]

I'd like to try that suggestion. Like a mid day bulb? What do you think could come out in place of the whiter bulb? Or do you think I'd want to re-order he configuration with that bulb in the mix?

[DEEPBLUESIX]

I'd agree with Randy.

You've got to have atleast one good bright white bulb in there.

I have not been doing this for real long. But everyone I know, regardless of lighting style has atleast some bright white at least for 4-6 hours per day...

The corals are gettting the most from that light. Afterward (beyond that time frame) the rest is additional and supplemental.

[pisces4u]

10k or 6500k will give you better growth than the 14-20k equivalents. Geismann has a midday bulb and GE has a 6500k. I recently added the geismann midday on my frag tank to boost growth.

I currently run 12 hour actinics, 6 hour daylights on my 50g. 12 hour actinic, 10 hour daylight on the frag tank.

[Bluephish13]

Thanks all,!!!!!

I have already cut the times a lil each day the last few days. It seems this was a good idea.

my setup right now is ..
front
uvl super actinic
uvl actinic white(i think this bulb is similar to the KZ figi purple bulb but lower par)
gmann aquablue+
gmann actinic+
gmann aquablue+
gmann pure actinic
back

So i def think ill knock down the aquablues to only 6 hours.
actinic white i will run for 8
and ill keep on the actinic+(blue)and pure actinic(violet) for 12

If this does not help then ill think of swapping out a aquablue+ for a GE 6500K. I do see a lot of people run at least one of these, but i do not think that is the case.

I am still anxiously waiting to see dana riddles next research on the g-mann, & ati bulbs, it should show spectral signatures, par, & pur. In the first issue with uvl i believe while the uvl white/sun bulbs had higher par, the actinic bulb had the highest pur and this is what we really want, correct? dana said on the next installment with g-mann and ati we will be surprised by what was found.

thanks again for the posts.

[Bluephish13]

NM take back that about the par/pur . it made no sense after looking at the numbers again.lol